From The Grave
by Grand High Idol
Summary: During a mission to cyberspace, Jackie ends up accidentally killing a certain individual in an attempt to defend herself. Shortly after his death, however, they begin to see signs that he still walks from the grave...[chapter 4 up]
1. Part One

It had begun like any other day in cyberspace. It had seemed like any other day in cyberspace. The kids, having received a message from Motherboard alerting them that Hacker was causing chaos in cyberspace once more, had gone into the cyber-world to try and stop him, as they always did. They didn't expect anything at all to be out of the ordinary. They thought that it would just be one of their usual days, stopping Hacker from taking over cyberspace, receiving praise from Motherboard and the cyber-citizens, and going back to earth, continuing on with their normal lives.

However, little did they know that today, that fateful day, would be far from normal. They only expected to stop Hacker and save Motherboard, and nothing else. They didn't expect what was about to come. They didn't expect the accident that was to happen on top of that building.

But perhaps if they had, they would've tried to stop it before it had happened. If they had refused to run on top of that building during the time that Hacker sent Buzz and Delete onto them, Jackie would've never done what she had done. And maybe perhaps if the building hadn't been so tall, they wouldn't be receiving all those signs…those awful signs…

Those signs that told them that their clocks were ticking…that time was running out. The signs that told them that an eye for an eye would surely prove to be one of the deadliest phrases alive…

****

FROM THE GRAVE

By Grand High Idol

Disclaimer: I do not own Cyberchase, nor any of its characters.

The entire incident that led to this horror took place on top of a building located in the cybersite of Valussa. Hacker had been after their main source of power, and thus the roots of the incident traced from here to the time the event finally took its gruesome place in their minds.

The kids had been standing behind an alley when Hacker came out of the area, a rather sour look on his face and his eyes narrowed in determination, taking long, slow strides. Buzz and Delete were trotting behind him obediently, as always, waiting for him to shout out a command so that they could please their boss. Hacker wasn't currently worked up about summoning them for anything at the moment; he was within the source of power, and the Cybersquad was nowhere in sight.

Still standing at the edge of the alley, the kids were now ready to make their introductory move in this mission. As Hacker approached the end of the alley, Jackie, Matt, Inez, and Digit, determined scowls set on their faces, leapt out from their hiding spot to confront him, standing in a line at the end of the alley, now directly in front of him, their hands on their hips. Hacker jumped backward a little, startled by their sudden entrance; Buzz and Delete did the same.

"Not so fast, Hacker!" Matt said angrily, holding up his hand to halt him. 

Hacker had already been halted by their appearance, so this was no trouble. The man now stood in front of them, a dumbfounded look on his face for a few moments, until he finally regained his senses and said, angrily twisting around to face his two robotic henchmen, "Get them at once, you duncebuckets!"

Buzz and Delete, obeying their boss's command, nodded and saluted in response, then started heading toward the kids at a tremendous pace. The kids, knowing that they'd tangled with both Buzz and Delete before in their lives, didn't particularly want to be grabbed and pinned down by the force of their arms at the moment. Turning around quickly, the three of them ran—Digit went by flight—as the two robots continued to pursue them, with Hacker watching all the while, his arms crossed and a great look of bitterness contorted on his facial features.

The kids ran, their shoes thudding on the asphalt, as the two robots continued to pursue them. When their path became blocked by some type of empty store, Matt made a sharp turn left; the other three followed him. Naturally, Buzz and Delete followed the curve as well and continued their chase, their eyes now narrowed in deep determination as they picked up their speed. The kids noticed this, however, and increased their speed as well, panting heavily as they continued to flee.

They continued to run like this until Matt finally halted near a fire escape, stationed at the side of a rather tall building, six stories high, at the least. The other three halted, wondering what this was about, until Matt finally made his point by jumping up and grabbing the first rung of the ladder that led up toward the escape itself. He began to swiftly climb up, moving with the speed of a cat; Jackie and Inez then leapt onto the ladder, while Digit simply flew up toward where Matt was climbing—the very top of the building. Jackie and Inez were about halfway up when they heard a deafening _CLANG_ noise, and looked below them; only to find, to their dismay, that Buzz and Delete had refused to falter for a moment and were still slowly, but steadily, gaining on them.

The kids were now atop the building and, pulling Inez up from the fire escape, Matt ran across the building's surface, heading for the edge in hopes of finding a safe place to jump to. He had no such luck upon coming to the edge, however, and, after casting a frightened gaze down at the street below, turned around just in time to see the two girls and the robotic bird standing next to him, staring at Buzz and Delete, who had reached the top of the escape and were now slowly and steadily advancing toward them, their arms outstretched as if they were zombies of some sort.

Jackie, who normally tended to being a drama queen, cast a frightened gaze down at the street far below her, then swallowed dryly and looked up toward Buzz and Delete again. She had never been that much afraid of them, but with the looks that they held on their faces now…they looked almost dead. She wished that they would stop it; she really did, but it didn't look like they were going to back down anytime soon.

Scanning the ground below her, she search for something—anything—that could possibly fend the robots off in time for them to arrive back at the fire escape, maybe go and catch up with Hacker later on. At first she could see nothing that would back Buzz and Delete down, but after a while she caught a silver glint out of the corner of her eye. Turning her head in that particular direction, she found, miraculously, a piece of broken pipeline, one edge dangerously jagged, lying about a yard or two away from her. She turned her gaze back toward the two robots, then swallowed again and looked back toward the pipe. If she could, maybe she could grab it and fend them off before either of them leapt for her or the others…

She looked back toward Buzz and Delete one final time, then finally decided to take the chance. Drawing in a short breath, she got low and dove for the pipe; Buzz was unfazed but Delete, noticing at once that she was going for it, uttered a low growl in his throat and lunged for _her_. Jackie, now within range of the pipe, noticed that Delete was coming for her and, uttering a gasp, finally snatched the pipe up from the ground and, sitting on her knees, lashed out and quickly swiped the pipe in a horizontal motion, near his chest.

She only meant to fend him off long enough for her to make a possible escape; she knew not what was about to happen. But if she had known, she would've tried to stop it. She would've tried to help him before he finally met his untimely demise below.

But no such luck was to be found in this precise moment. Not wanting to cut herself, that and the fact that she had not been paying attention to anything but Delete when she had snatched it from the surface, and had, unfortunately, struck at him with the jagged edge of the pipe. To her and everyone's horror, it had turned out to be much more jagged than it appeared. A loud _SPLACCK_ sound shattered the air's silence; she finally summoned the courage to look up shortly afterward, then yelped as a stream of black blood nearly splattered across her face.

Looking at Delete, her breath coming in short gasps, Jackie now saw, much to her horror, that the jagged edges of the pipeline had struck Delete across the chest, where she had aimed, and had left a large, gaping cut that jutted out from his side and ran all the way up and across to his shoulder, considering the position that he had been in when she had struck him. Blood was now beginning to seep from the wound and down his shirt; he looked down at himself, then at her, then finally at the pipe—its jagged tip now stained with robotic blood—and gasped. He drew his hand up to his chest, clutching the wound tightly as more blood began to trickle down. It didn't seem to stop.

Jackie placed her hands to her mouth as she watched Delete start to stumble around like a wounded horse, obviously dazed from both blood loss and the sight of the wound alone, his hand still tightly clutching his shirt. Buzz turned and watched, too, a look of both horror and confusion on his face, but he refused to say anything for fear of breaking the silence or drawing the kids to his attention. He simply stood there, feeling like a complete idiot for not lunging for the kids when he clearly had the chance to do so, but then again he didn't want to be struck with Jackie's pipe, either.

The group of five watched as Delete continued to stumble, until he finally came close to the building's edge—too close, as a matter of fact; he was only a few inches from the metal railing that framed the building's roof. He was too busy stumbling around, surges of dizziness rushing through his head, to even consider this fact, however…he didn't notice until it was too late. And the horror that was to follow finally occurred, right in front of their very eyes.

The five's eyes popped open wide in horror, and their mouths dropped open, as with a loud "YIP!", sounding very much like a frightened puppy, Delete finally lost his balance and fell over the railing edge. All five of them then gasped as Delete let out a horrified scream, the kind that a terrorized woman makes, for a few seconds, until they finally heard an awful _CRROOCCK _sound, the same sound that breaking eggs make. All was silent then afterward…a very still, eerie silence that Jackie didn't like one bit…

After a while, Inez swallowed once or twice; her voice was caught in her throat, then finally said, her voice quaking ever so slightly, "O-oh m-my G-God…"

"Is he okay?" Matt asked, staring over near the spot where Delete had fallen. Jackie looked toward the rail as well, then bit one of her nails; she had a highly nervous feeling about what had happened to the robot after he had fallen. That sound…that awful sound…she would never be able to get it out of her mind…

"Only one way to find out," Inez said softly; getting to her feet, she slowly walked toward the edge of the railing, as if pulled by some kind of magnetic force, her eyes all the while locked on the railing edge. The others watched as she slowly leaned over the edge of the railing, looking at the street below her; she then immediately clapped her hand over her mouth, stumbled backward, and nearly fell back onto the ground. Matt, Jackie, and Digit could now see that she was visibly trembling.

Jackie suddenly had a very uneasy feeling about what Inez had seen on the street. "What is it?" she asked, sounding somewhat reluctant as she slowly got to her feet and ran over toward the trembling girl.

Inez refused to answer for a few moments, then finally summoned the courage to talk, although her voice was quaking all the while: "Y-you w-won't b-b-believe what h-happened t-to him…o-oh m-my God…it's s-so h-horribly disgusting…" She then turned away, her tanned face paling slightly as her eyes turned away from Jackie's.

Matt cocked his eyebrow with curiosity, then slowly and steadily moved over to the edge of the rail and gazed down at the street below, in the same direction that Inez had earlier. Jackie looked up and saw him scanning the ground for a few moments, then his eyes grew wide, his body froze, and his face turned the same color as Hacker's. Clapping his hand to his mouth, he quickly turned away from the rail, then started to run toward the fire escape that they had used to get up there in the first place.

Jackie's eyes followed him as he swung himself over and started to climb back down the ladder; Inez did the same after the shock had passed. "Matt, where are you going?" she demanded, shooting him a gaze of slight uneasiness.

"Down," was Matt's reply; he then disappeared from view as he continued down the ladder. Jackie sighed, then got to her feet, helped Inez up, and started to walk over toward the ladder; Digit slowly followed them. He hadn't said a word in the moment, but he had a horrified gaze on his face that suggested he was either about to run away screaming at the top of his lungs or vomit, one of the two. Jackie shot him a gaze of concern, then turned her head to look back at Buzz, who hadn't budged since Delete's fall. He was now staring straight ahead, near the spot where Delete had tripped, his eyes and his mouth both wide open in shock and horror. Jackie decided that she mustn't mind him, and continued her descent down the ladder, her hands shaking as she gripped the rungs.

When she arrived at the bottom, Matt had already turned the corner and, when the girls and Digit followed suite, they found him standing on the sidewalk, right next to the street, his back to them; however, they could clearly see that his body had gone completely rigid. He was standing in front of an object; it was blocked by his feet but the girls only needed one guess to figure out what it was. They shuddered at the thought, then stepped up beside Matt—

Then clapped their hands to their mouths to keep from screaming.

Just as they had predicted, Delete was lying on the sidewalk, sprawled out on his stomach. He appeared to have several broken appendages; one arm was bent back at an odd angle and his legs were sprawled in a rather unorderly manner. The other arm had come loose due to the impact and was close to hanging by a thread; they could see the wires…his face was not to be seen due to his positioning, but they knew that it probably was just as beat up as his body was. He was covered in streaks of black blood, and a small pool of it was slowly growing beneath him.

"Oh, man…" Jackie murmured under her breath as she eyed the battered robot.

It was then that Digit, who hadn't uttered a single word, finally spoke up. "H-he looks pretty b-beat up," he stammered, staring down at Delete as he said these words, the horrified gaze still etched into his face. "I w-wonder if h-he's still alive…"

"Well, only one way to find out," Matt replied, trying his best to sound brave but still sounding moderately frightened. He then reached out with his shaking hands and, sliding them underneath the robot's stomach, slowly flipped him over. The girls cringed as he creaked over onto his back, then finally got a good glimpse of his front—and gasped yet again.

The front was in an even more worse condition than the back had been; Jackie suddenly knew that the impact had been the thing that had done this to him. The chest wound was still visible, she could see, only it looked much more ripped up, and blood was still flowing from it freely, drenching his body in the substance. His face appeared intact for the most part, but when she looked closer she could see that the jaw had come loose from its hinges, and one or two of his teeth had fallen out. His eyes were still wide open in terror, and were leaking tears of blood down onto his face, leaving small streams on his cheeks as they stained the pavement. His eyes were still visible, but had dulled to gray and were coming close to blacking out entirely.

Matt, Jackie, Inez, and especially Digit all knew what this meant, and were horrified by it. Digit started stammering and finally hid his face in Inez's vest, Inez gaped at Delete open-mouthed, Matt made several frightened noises and put his hand to his mouth, then finally, slowly and steadily, picked up Delete's hand, gripping it tightly around the wrist. He felt it for a few moments—it was stone cold—then finally shook his head and dropped it.

"Well?" Jackie asked, clutching her hands tightly together as she looked at Matt, as if praying for some type of miracle. But of course, it would never come. Matt slowly looked up at her, his eyes still wide with terror, then finally said, in a voice that was slow and laced with pure terror:

"H-he's dead," Matt replied, starting to visibly shake to the point where his teeth were nearly chattering. "Stone cold dead…Jackie, you—you've _killed_ him."


	2. Part Two

****

FROM THE GRAVE

By Grand High Idol

PART II

No sooner had these words reached the ears of Digit that he had begun quaking violently, so much that he could no longer fly anymore and instead lowered himself to the ground, still shaking so that they could hear the rattling of his metallic area. He now had his gaze locked onto Delete's body, repeating the same phrase over and over, as if he were a repeat recording: "Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God…"

"You've killed him, Jackie," Matt repeated, although his gaze was no longer locked on Delete's corpse nor Jackie herself. He was staring out into the binary-coded clouds of cyberspace, his mouth partly open, his eyes refusing to blink. "You've killed him…you've really killed him."

Jackie knew that this was true, and as a result became horrorstruck. Trembling in fear, she gulped, then said, looking down at the robot's bloodied body, "Oh, man…guys, I can swear to you that it was an accident. An accident!" The others looked at her. "I swear that I never meant to actually make him fall from the building. I was just trying to fend him off! You guys have got to believe me!"

"We never said that we didn't believe you, Jackie," Inez finally said, the color starting to return to her face as she tore her gaze away from Delete's body and settled it on the dark-skinned girl. "But the sight of this…oh man…"

"Hacker will probably never forgive us," Matt pointed out, then, finally realizing the fact that it didn't matter much, anyway; Hacker would hate them no matter what they did, swiftly tried to correct himself. "But that doesn't exactly matter right now."

"Correct," Inez said, nodding her head. She then looked back down at Delete's body, and although her facial expressions did not change, she began to pale slightly once more. "However, what does matter is that Jackie killed someone, self defense or not, and if anyone finds out about this she'll surely be charged for manslaughter."

"What? No!" Jackie cried, clutching her face with her hands in anxiety. "If that happens, my entire reputation as a member of the Cybersquad will be ruined! I'll probably never be able to come into cyberspace again; either that or I'll probably spend eons in prison!" She looked down at Delete's body, then groaned, as her face slightly paled to a lighter brown. "Oh, man, I think I'm going to be sick or something…"

"Don't, Jackie," Matt quickly responded, holding out his hand. "Please don't. That's the last thing that I want to see right now next to the fact that we're standing next to the bloodied corpse of Hacker's henchman."

"We can't let them find out, guys!" Jackie said, now sounding rather panicked. She grabbed Inez, who was kneeling next to her, by the shoulders and started shaking her vigorously. "We can't let them find out! If they do I'll probably never see this world as long as I live!"

"Okay, okay, calm down," Inez ordered, holding up both of her hands to stop any more acts of fright from either of them. She quickly pushed Jackie away from her as she took another deep breath. "We have to calm down, guys…calm down. I think I know how to handle this properly without having to turn ourselves in. Even if it _was_ Delete, I doubt that they would let you get away with manslaughter, Jackie."

"Can you please not mention that?" Jackie pleaded.

Inez rolled her eyes, the shock starting to clear from her as she stared down at the body, then continued, "Listen, I don't think that Hacker will miss him, and it was an accident, Jackie. I think that I have a solution to our problem that isn't law-related." She paused as she looked around the current area, as if trying to find something; her gaze soon enough fell on a dumpster adjacent to one of the buildings near the street. "If we properly dispose of the body, I doubt that the police will be able to catch us, guys. All we need to do is hide it in a safe place until we can get the chance to escape or, if the police find us, plan our defense."

"What! Inez, have you gone crazy?" Matt exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. "You, of all people, actually want us to hide a corpse somewhere where the police won't be able to detect it, just so we can make a clean getaway!?"

"Calm down, Matt," Inez ordered; she then sighed and looked back down at the body. "I don't want us to break the law or anything. Listen, there's nothing we can do for him now, so we might as well help ourselves while we still can."

"She's right, Matty," Digit agreed, though he sounded rather reluctant at his words. "We have to help ourselves if we can't help him anymore." He placed his wings on Jackie's shoulders. "And it was an accident, Jackie, an accident. You don't have to worry about being charged if they _do_ find the evidence."

"Who cares if it was an accident or not? And who cares if it was Delete or not? I still killed him!" Jackie wailed, placing her hands over her face. Digit sighed and withdrew his wings from her shoulders; he knew that it was hopeless to try to make her feel otherwise at this precise moment.

Inez and Matt looked at each other, then Inez finally rose to her feet and walked over near Delete's feet. She then slid her hands underneath the legs and hoisted them up, cringing slightly as she did so. She then looked at Matt and Jackie. "Come on, guys," she ordered, "Help me carry him."

Matt and Jackie then looked uneasily at each other before finally swallowing and walking over toward the head. Doing the same thing that Inez had done, Jackie hoisted up one arm and wrapped it around her neck, visibly shaking at the thought of actually touching a dead man (or robot, in this case), and Matt simply kept his hands underneath the creature's waist, due to the fact that the other arm had come from its hinges. They then slowly lifted the creature off of the pavement—he appeared heavier than they thought—and slightly stumbled as they began to carry him over toward a nearby alley.

"So, where are we going to put him so we're sure the police can't find him?" Matt asked, nearly tripping over a trash can lid as he continued to carry the dead robot. Inez looked at him, then narrowed her eyes at a nearby dumpster, standing at the edge of the alley and looking entirely deserted save a few cats. They scrambled when the kids came, however, and Inez then looked up toward the dumpster, an almost determined gaze on her face.

"We'll throw him in here," she ordered them; then she lifted the creature's feet higher above her head. "Okay, on the count of three, we're all going to hurl him into the dumpster at the same time. Ready?" Jackie and Matt nodded reluctantly. "Okay…one, two…three!"

As she said this last word, the kids drew back, then, with all the strength that they could muster, thrust the creature's cadaver into the dumpster. He landed in on his back, provoking a loud _CLANG_ sound as he hit the bottom; the kids then quickly slammed the dumpster's lid down, hiding the body from view. They then turned around and leaned against it, cold sweat dripping down their faces as they tried to take a breather before heading back to the scene.

"Well, we did it, guys," Jackie said, not sounding the least bit pleased with herself. "We got rid of the body for good, hopefully."

"I feel like someone from one of those crime shows," Inez sighed unhappily; she then looked up toward the area where Delete had fallen. "Come on, guys, we'd better go back…if anyone catches us in an alley they'll think that we're up to something."

"We _were_ up to something," Matt said, hanging his head slightly as he followed Inez out of the alley. Suddenly realizing something, he then looked around suspiciously. "Hey, guys…did you notice that when we disposed of the body, there wasn't anyone around in this area to witness it? I mean, it was like it was totally deserted or something."

Digit, who was now flying next to him and looking rather terrified, nodded. "Not a living soul must've seen us while we were doing it," he agreed, "But this is a city. I don't understand how not even a car could've passed by while we were carrying the body; I mean, we certainly took up enough time carrying it over to that dumpster—uh oh…"

The kids looked up in time to see Buzz, who had finally snapped out of his momentary shock and was now descending from the ladder, his eyes still slightly wide. They froze right where they were—which was currently in the center of the dusty street—as the robot finally jumped from the ladder's bottom and landed on the ground, then looked up at them, not bothering to want to grab them after witnessing what had happened. Instead, he merely shook it off, and said, in a rather hoarse, demanding tone:

"Where is he?"

The kids at first did not know whom he was referring to, but that thought quickly changed as the fresh image of Delete, his eyes blacked out and his body bent out of position, made its way into their minds. A slight chill ran up Jackie's spine as she looked at the short robot, who was now seemingly growing rather impatient with their reluctance. He clenched his teeth, then said, sounding louder and a bit more demanding than he had been before:

"Well, where is he? Answer me!"

The kids once again refused to answer; Buzz growled at them, and was about to open his mouth to say something again when he seemingly stepped forward. Naturally, he stepped directly in the bloody outline of where Delete's fall had been stationed; the kids cringed as he looked down, and upon seeing Delete's outline within the massive puddle of blood his mouth dropped open, his eyes grew wider, and he gasped.

Quickly removing his foot from the bloody puddle, he drew back and pressed against the wall, his breath coming in short, quickened gasps. Once the shock cleared, however, he finally began to realize what exactly had happened to Delete, and thus clenched his hands into tight fists, bared his teeth, and shut his eyes tightly. He shook violently for a few moments, then finally said to them, his voice aligned with rage, "What did you do to him?"

Jackie, thinking that Buzz might as well know what had happened; she couldn't keep it to herself much longer, opened her mouth to begin her explanation. "Buzz, I—"

"What did you do to him!?" Buzz repeated; he was ignoring her words and sounding more angered by the moment. He was now stepping forward, his hands at his sides and still balled into tight fists. Jackie tried her hardest to ignore this threat, and swallowed before trying to explain to him:

"Buzz—"

"_WHAT DID YOU DO_!" Buzz was at maximum rage now. His eyes were narrowed dangerously, his fists were clenched so tightly that they were turning silver, and his teeth were bared at one side. He took another step forward, his entire body shaking violently in rage, as he shouted, "Answer me! _ANSWER ME_!"

"I'm trying to—"

"Shut up!" Buzz interrupted, then, unable to keep his rage at bay any longer, he screamed angrily and leapt forward. Jackie screamed and covered her face, but before Buzz could have the chance to maul her—which he very well would've done—something snagged him by the antenna; he let out a yelp of surprise as he came to a halt in midair. Looking up, his gaze still clearly showing visible rage, he could see that it had been Hacker whom had grabbed him; he was now staring down at the robot with a victorious gaze upon his face.

"Let me go!" Buzz hollered, trying to struggle out of his boss's grasp. "Let me GO!"

"Hold still!" Hacker snapped angrily, now grabbing him by the wrists to keep him down. Buzz continued to struggle, but he knew firsthand that he was no match for his boss's superior strength. Hacker held the squirming creature down as he said, sounding peeved, "I _have_ what I want, you duncebucket. The brats have already lost!" Buzz refused to listen, so he snapped, "Hold _still_, you infernal pile of bolts! We're going back to the Wreaker!"

Buzz was still infuriated, but he still had a sense of mind not to mess with his higher. He stopped struggling, but refused to move, let alone take his gaze from the kids; Hacker was forced to drag him off, a rather annoyed look on his face as well. Digit, Jackie, Matt, and Inez didn't even bother to try and stop him; they were too caught up in the previous murder in order to do so. Digit hadn't even bothered to make a single move when Hacker had said that he had gotten what he wanted, and that they had already lost. Jackie didn't even care; she was too busy watching Buzz, who was still glaring at her like some kind of madman.

"You won't get away with this," he shouted back at her, his voice just as threatening and enraged as his gaze was. "I swear to God that you won't get away with this. Be warned, Jackie, as soon as I get my hands on you I'm going to rip every blasted bone _CLEAR OUT OF YOUR BODY_!"

Jackie gasped, then breathed deeply a few times out of shock to regain her will to stand; this threat of Buzz's actually sounded like he was going to pull it out, and normally when it came to Hacker this rarely happened in real life. She looked back at him fearfully; he was still screaming, threatening, and cursing the four at the top of his lungs as he was dragged back in the direction of the Wreaker…

***

It was late at night, and Jackie, who was lying on her side in bed, could not sleep, no matter how hard she tried. Of course, one her age would never be able to sleep after witnessing what had happened earlier that day…she had cut Delete…he had bled…and as a result he had lost his balance and had fallen to his death, crushed to a pulp on the street below. Even after it had passed, she could still hear the sound effects as loud and clear as they had been when they had actually happened:

_SPLACCK. YIP! CRROOCKK._

She shuddered as these sounds played themselves again in her head, then quickly buried her head under her pillow, to try and keep herself from hearing them as so to get to sleep. However, she could not erase them from her mind, they were still fresh and were still haunting her like mad.

_SPLACCK. YIP! CRROOCKK._

Finally she could take it no longer. Covering her ears with her hands, she took her pillow off of her head, then turned over and faced the ceiling, although it didn't help. And the sound effects were beginning to remind her of how sorry she really felt for the robot. The little guy didn't really know what was coming to him…he was following orders, as he always did. And his only expectancy was to meet his fate on the street below. Buzz didn't even pine for him…he had merely tried to beat them to a pulp (he would have, too, if given the chance, she realized), and when Hacker had stopped him he had screamed, yelled, and threatened them. Hacker certainly wouldn't care; even when he grabbed Buzz he didn't seem aware of the fact that his other henchman was stone cold dead.

"Poor little guy," she finally whispered to herself, although she seemed unaware of it at first, then a few tears fell from her eyes. "I should've thought twice before I struck him with that pipe…I seriously didn't mean to kill him…and now look what's going on…"

She sighed, then rolled over on her frontside, still trying her hardest to forget. But it was so wrong to even try to forget…and she knew that the next time she came into cyberspace, there would probably be a huge report on how Delete had died, and that the killer was being tracked. What would they think if she, once one of the most loved people in all of cyberspace, had turned out to be the actual murderer? What would they do to her? What would they say?

"Go to sleep, Jackie," she scolded herself, throwing the blanket over herself. "You can't burden yourself with these thoughts right now. It's anxiety like this that makes people do poorly in actual performance."

After a few moments of trying to clear the thoughts from her head, she finally became exhausted because of it and fell asleep, although her slumber was far from comfortable compared to what she had seen earlier…but yet she refused to wake up.

***

In the Grim Wreaker, however, Buzz was much too tense and furious to sleep at all, and as a result was still awake, his eyes still narrowed and the spark of fury still within his pupils. He was sitting at the table, now, his arms crossed tightly over his chest, as Hacker entered, carrying with him the main power supply for Valussa—which had turned out to be a special power source contained within some type of electrical plug. He was carrying the plug over to his Recharger Chair, but at seeing Buzz he raised his eyebrow; apparently he didn't like anyone out-angering him.

"What's wrong with you?" he said, although he didn't sound the least bit interested at all. "You looked like you were about to burst an oil valve back there. I normally don't need to drag you away from things, Buzz." He sounded highly annoyed as he said this last sentence.

Buzz was still too angry to tell his boss the truth about what he'd seen, so as a result he merely narrowed his eyes further and hissed, through clenched teeth as his hands balled into fists, "Boss, you don't know how much I wanted you to send me on 'dem. I _really_ wish 'dat you'd sent me on 'dem."

"I told you, I had what I wanted," Hacker snapped at him. "To send you on them seemed entirely pointless; they seemed much too occupied with your little fit to even notice that I'd won this time." He shook his head. "I don't even know why you started that preposterous little hissy fit in the first place. I thought you knew better, you duncebucket…"

Buzz responded with a low growl, as Hacker set the plug down, then left the room to get the remainder of the items needed to extract its power. Buzz, now left alone in the room, slowly got down from the chair, then, trying to ignore the red that was forming in front of him, began to walk toward his room, in hopes that if he possibly laid down it would cool his nerves for at least a few moments.

He didn't get very far, however, for just as he passed the Grim Wreaker's phone, it began ringing. Buzz screamed in frustration, then cursed under his breath at the phone before stomping over to it, snatching it from the control panel, and saying "What!" into the end, rather angrily.

The person on the other line, most likely a woman, seemed to ignore this, however. "Hello, is this Mr. Buzz…um, 'last name remains anonymous'?"

"Yes," Buzz replied, still sounding rather annoyed. "What in cyberspace do you want?"

"This is the operator, sir. I have a collect call for you from someone…he refused to tell me his whole name, I'm afraid, but he referred to himself as a Mr. 'Delete'. Will you accept the charges?"

At hearing Delete's name Buzz's mouth dropped open slightly, and his eyes widened. He was nearly unable to hold the receiver and almost dropped it on the ground as a result, but quickly collected himself and clutched the phone with both hands, his breath coming in short, shaky gasps.

"Will you accept the charges?" the woman's voice repeated.

Buzz's head stopped spinning and he quickly shook his head to get the dazed feeling out of his mind. "Um…yes, uh, sure."

"Very well, then. Go ahead, please." The phone line then clicked off.

Buzz was unable to speak for a few moments, but after a while he finally mustered the willpower to do so. "Uh…hello?" he said, rather uneasily as he stared at the phone line.

There was no answer for a few moments, then a voice finally answered on the other line. It was a high-pitched, bubbly sounding voice, yet slightly masculine at the same time. It was Delete's voice, all right. "Hi, Buzzy. How ya doin'?"

_He sounds so far off_, Buzz thought to himself before answering. "Um…who is 'dis?"

"It's me, Delete. Don't you recognize my voice?"

"Yeah, I do…but…you can't be talking to me."

"Why not?"

"You're dead. You died earlier today," Buzz informed him, while at the same time he thought that this was rather peculiar…if Delete was indeed dead, how could he be talking to him on a collect call line?

There was a pause, then Delete's voice replied, "I was dead, Buzz. I was dead." There was his usual, familiar high-pitched giggle on the other end before he spoke again. "Don't you get it, Buzz? I'm back from the grave. I've missed you…so much…" His voice suddenly became slightly cold as he spoke again. "_So much_…"

"What is 'dis?" Buzz said, starting to sound rather suspicious. "You can't be Delete. He's dead. I watched him die. Jackie killed him, okay? You are not Delete!" However, at the same time Buzz seemed to know that it had to be Delete, no one else could do a voice imitation that accurate…unless, of course, it was Digit…but hadn't he put him through enough already? _Apparently not_, Buzz thought helplessly as he continued to listen to the unknown individual on the other end.

"Oh, but I am, Buzz. I am. And I've come back from the grave to take care of Jackie once and for all. Don't you see? I'm back from the grave…back from the grave…and I'm out to take revenge on _each—and—every—one—of—you_—"

"Is 'dis someone's idea of a joke?" Buzz finally shouted into the other line. "_WHO IS THIS?! WHO ARE YOU_?"

His only response was another giggle at the other end of the line. "How ya doin'?"

Then the line went dead…


	3. Part Three

****

FROM THE GRAVE

By Grand High Idol

Part III

For a while all Buzz could do was stand in place, shivering for a few moments. The receiver dropped from his hand and clattered to the floor, but he took no notice; he was too deep in thought. Normally such things as this wouldn't frighten him, but it sounded serious this time. Delete was dead, right? Then why had he called in the middle of the night, on a collect call line, saying that he was back from the grave and was going to take revenge on Jackie, along with each and every one of them? It didn't make any sense at all. Delete's body hadn't even been reported as found yet…he had no idea what the Cybersquad had done with it after they had found he was dead…

After a few moments of shivering, dripping with cold sweat, his eyes finally narrowed as he looked down at the fallen receiver, which lay on the floor, still, near his feet. Emitting a low growl noise, he immediately snatched the receiver up from the ground, then punched in a number and held the phone to his ear, tapping his foot impatiently as it began ringing.

The person on the other line picked up on the second ring. "Hello?" another voice said, rather timidly, into the other line. Buzz's eyes narrowed further; just as he had planned upon, Digit had answered the other line. "This is Motherboard Control Central. Is there anything that I can do for you?"

"Yeah, Digit," Buzz replied, rather hotly, into the other end. "Stop fooling around with your stupid prank calls. You ain't fooling anyone but yourself, ya know."

"Buzz? Is that you?" Digit appeared confused. "What are you talking about?"

"You know dang well what I'm talking about!" Buzz snapped at him. "I recently received a phone call on a collect call line. 'Dey said 'dat it was Delete calling, but I know 'dat it can't be him. He's dead, you idiotic turkey! He can't call me up on a collect call line and claim 'dat he's back from 'da grave!"

There was a momentary pause on the other end, then Digit spoke again, this time sounding rather annoyed himself. "Listen, tin-head, I don't know what the heck you're talking about, but I swear I didn't call you. I was with the Doc and Motherboard, okay?"

"'Den who did?" Buzz challenged. "'Da voice was a dead-on impression of Delete's, and I know quite well 'dat Delete is dead, thank you very much. And no one else besides you can do a dead-on voice impression such as 'dat."

Digit was silent again, then he finally spoke. This time his voice tone mirrored complete disgust. "Oh, so just because it's Delete's voice, and Delete's dead, you blame me, eh? Well, let me tell you something, _Buzzie_. I never called you, and that's final."

Before Buzz could get another word out of his mouth, Digit slammed his end of the receiver back down on its base, nearly smashing it into the wall in the process. He then clenched his fists and snorted before turning away toward where Marbles and Motherboard currently were at the time. "Just who does that bucket-head think he is? Why the heck would I do that?" He sighed and shook his head. "To be honest, I didn't think it was that funny either."

***

The new morning, however, brought promise for the cybird. He hadn't slept very well at all last night—he was still much too busy thinking about Delete, and about how Buzz had called him so late at night—and was now slumped over the table in the kitchen, sighing as he tried to peck at a piece of bacon left sitting on his plate. Decided that he was not very hungry at the moment, he sighed again, then pushed the plate with the bacon aside and reached for his mug of coffee.

His wing was halfway from the cup when he caught sight of the daily paper lying on the table. Curious, as always, about what was going on, he halted his wing's descent toward the coffee and began to reach over the table for the paper—who knows, maybe there would be a written article on how they had almost saved cyberspace…he doubted it, though. Why would they write an article on that when they knew that they had saved cyberspace for real, countless times before?

Nonetheless, he grabbed the paper from the table and opened it to look at the inner articles—their defeat surly wasn't front-page material. The first headline he saw, however, made his spine jump, and he almost choked on his bacon after seeing the print, in clear, bold type:

****

An Unexpected Murder Scene?

__

Mangled Robot Found in City Dumpster

At first he did not dare to read more, but his eyes led him down the narrow strip of article anyway. His first thoughts were that it had to be a mistake; that they had coincidentally found another robot in another dumpster somewhere, and not Delete. But the article soon enough proved him wrong:

__

Last night, at approximately 10:00 p.m., the scenario of what appears to be a suspected murder scene was uncovered.

A local civilian was walking down the alleyway last night, and supposedly came across a nearby dumpster. He claims to have had a slice of pizza with him and was not going to finish the crust, thus he lifted up the lid of the nearest dumpster to toss it in. When he looked down, he was both "shocked and appalled", or so he says.

At the bottom of the dumpster the police later pulled out the body of a robotic creature, and a rather mangled one, at that. Blood was coating the bottom of the dumpster, so the police had guessed that it was killed only a few hours before the civilian had come across it. An autopsy was run on the creature—which appeared to be a rather young, teal colored android, about four foot ten inches in height and an approximated 150 pounds in weight. First guesses led us to believe that it was the Hacker's Delete, a henchman of the famous villain who had a very high criminal record.

Of course, the dissectors were not entirely sure of this. The autopsy led to believe that the robot was killed by sudden force; several of his limbs were broken—neck and back included—and a few more of his internal functionings had been destroyed. Whether it was a suicide or a murder, the specialists are not sure.

The creature's cadaver is currently being held at the city morgue, where it will remain until someone comes to claim its lifeless form. Further information as of now will be classified.

Digit grabbed himself by the neck to prevent any further choking, then he shakily swallowed the bacon, panting harshly in both aftershock and fear after doing so. They had found Delete. In the dumpster. They had run an autopsy, identified his looks, everything. There was no mistaking that description they offered; Delete was Digit's little brother, and he knew him well enough to believe that. But they had considered it a suicide, and for that he—they—were safe for the time being. But if they found out in further studies that it was something other than an attempted suicide…

"Oh, they will _not_," Digit scolded himself, crossing his wings over his chest as he looked back down at the article. "If they think it's a suicide, let it be so. But if they find anything else out…well, we're going to have to prepare for a court case." He shook his head and leaned back in his chair. "Woof. It's a good thing Motherboard doesn't know about any of this yet…"

It was then that he remembered what Buzz had said after he had called him last night. _"He's dead, you idiotic turkey! He can't call me up on a collect call line and say 'dat he's back from 'da grave!"_

"What did that mean?" Digit muttered to himself as he looked back down at the paper. "Could Delete seriously be back from the grave?…No, Digit, stop scaring yourself like this. He's dead. I saw him die. He can't come back unless he's a member of the walking undead or something like that." He shook his head and reached for his cup of coffee again. "It was probably just a joke on me. That's it. What with the way Buzz blew up yesterday…but it just didn't seem like him to do something like this." He took a sip of coffee to calm his nerves a bit. "Especially when he gets so ticked off like this…he can never be serious."

***

"In ya go, dead man," one of the morgue workers exclaimed rather cheerfully as he shoved the drawer containing Delete's body bag closed with a loud _RRRRCHAACK_, dusting his hands off after doing so. He was in a rather good mood today—he had never liked Hacker much, and for that he was glad that at least one of his henchmen were stone cold dead. He had even poked fun at the corpse by ripping out one of its prized teeth and making it into a necklace, which he now wore strapped around his neck.

Whistling to himself, he headed back toward his desk, his hands in his pockets, before finally plopping down in his leather swivel chair and picking up one of the pencils from his desk. He toyed around with it for awhile before finally deciding to make something of the time he had, then reached for the morning paper.

Chuckling at the article on the front page, he flipped through the pages upon pages of other happenings going on about cyberspace and went straight to the crossword puzzle. Eyeing his pencil for a short moment, he shook his head, then flattened the paper out on the neatly organized desk and began to try and fill in the blanks, his head in one hand, pencil in the other.

As he tapped the paper's surface with his pencil point, he stopped as he heard a deafening _RRRRCCHHAACK_ noise, the exact same noise that he had heard only a few moments earlier when he had stashed away Delete's corpse. Curious and at the name time rather nervous, he quickly turned his head in that direction, wondering if it was just another one of the morgue workers storing another corpse until the relatives came to get it.

He heard nothing for a few more moments, then he finally heard the faint sound of footsteps echoing throughout the main room. Slowly getting up from his desk, the morgue worker rested his hands upon the table, looking over in the direction from which the noise had originated from—the look on his face was one of obvious puzzlement. Slowly releasing his hand from the pencil, the man pushed his swivel chair away from his desk, then faced the noise and slowly took a step forward.

His foot made a slight clacking noise as it hit the linoleum, but other than that he heard nothing. Absolute silence had resumed throughout the morgue, and nothing seemed to be ready to break it anytime soon. Straightening back up, suggesting to himself that it was, indeed, another one of the morgue workers, he shrugged it off and turned back to his desk.

He was just about to write down the first answer to the puzzle when the footsteps came again. Rather nervous at this moment, he dropped the pencil again and looked over toward the direction of the noise yet again, only to find that there was nothing there. Sighing in frustration, he picked up his pencil yet again…then the footsteps came again.

The morgue worker ignored this and wrote down the first answer, then, when the footsteps didn't falter, he sighed and looked over toward the direction of the noise yet again…and this time, he was dead sick of it. He wanted to know who was making that noise and why. And whoever it was, it was deeply interfering with his crossword puzzle.

"Marty?" the man called, slowly getting up from his chair. "Is that you, man?"

There was no answer, just a noise that sounded like something hitting the ground. The morgue worker sighed, then slowly arose from his chair, dropped the pencil, and began to walk briskly along the narrow hallway to the area where the corpses were originally stored. He stopped in the doorway, then raised his hands to his mouth and called again.

"Marty? You there?"

His voice echoed over the locker-covered walls, and still there was no answer to be heard. Sighing in frustration, he looked around for any signs of another employee, then shook his head and decided that if anything, Marty was playing a prank on him…a rather idiotic prank, he thought to himself. He walked into the center of the room, stopping near an autopsy table, then his eyes searched the room yet again for any signs of another life form other than himself. When he found no one, he grunted in annoyance, then was about to turn around and head back to his office…

When he noticed that one of the wall lockers had been opened. Tilting his head to one side, wondering what this was all about, he slowly approached the open locker and looked down at the drawer—the drawer in which a corpse should've been; he could tell from the odor that one had been slid in here recently. But there was nothing there. Nothing but a body bag, and a very mangled one, at that. It looked like it had been torn open from the head down, due to the marks. But who would do that…?

"Wonder who this was, anyway," he muttered to himself as he grabbed the handle and began to slowly slide the drawer closed, looking at the ID card slid into one of the locker's slots upon doing so. Taking one look at it, he froze, then quickly released his hand:

It was the exact same locker that he had slid Delete's corpse into earlier.

Shaking his head, thinking that this was all just a simple joke, he looked around the room again, searching for any signs of another morgue worker—surely they had just removed the corpse for some reason or another? But no, why would they…the autopsy had already been done, and there really wasn't any other reason to do so…

He then looked over toward the area that led into the other compartments of the morgue, along with a few of the autopsy rooms. The footsteps began to come again, and he took another step closer, hoping that it was just Marty returning with Delete's corpse…then his eyes grew wide and he stumbled backward, losing his balance and landing rather hard on the floor.

A shadow had loomed over the wall; a shadow that he recognized very well, there was no mistaking the distinct features of the head that the shadow cast. Shaking his head as the shadow grew thicker (which apparently meant that the caster was drawing closer), unable to believe it, he quickly scrambled to his feet, then looked around frantically for something, anything, to defend himself with.

Just as the figure loomed around the corner, the worker had managed to find an autopsy knife on one of the nearby examination tables, much to his relief. Whipping around to face the figure, he stood poised for action, the knife handle gripped tightly in his clammy hand, an angry and somewhat determined glare on his face.

The figure reared its head to face the worker, then narrowed its eyes as well and began to slowly walk toward him, in a stiff gait, one leg dragging behind it. The morgue worker gritted his teeth, taking hissing breaths, then, when he finally could stand it no longer, he gave a loud roar and lunged forward with the knife; before the figure could react he had stabbed into the chest with all the force he had.

Now that the knife had made contact, the morgue worker grinned, then drove the pointed blade deeper into the chest, until only a few inches of the blade were to be seen outside the body. His breath coming in shaking gasps, he gripped the knife handle tighter, then yanked it out, lurching the unknown individual forward and almost causing it to drop to the floor. Its blade now well stained with blood, he held it up at an arm's length, still gasping for breath, the figure looking at him with a pained expression.

"How d'ya like that?" the worker responded, growling. "How d'ya like that, hellspawn?"

The figure's expression remained pained for a few more seconds, as both its hands flew to its bleeding chest. It made a pained noise before falling to its knees, appearing to be slowly slipping back into death. The worker grinned, then, feeling very sure of himself indeed at that moment, took another step forward, just to prove to the figure in front of him that he was not afraid and that he'd do it again if he had to.

Minutes passed without tension, and yet the creature was not showing any signs of death. This made the worker confused—he knew very well that this thing was undead, but he didn't think that it would be _that_ undead. Scratching his head, he looked down at the knife, then shifted his gaze back to the thing in front of him—and gasped again.

The creature was now getting to its feet, slowly but steadily, and the pained expression that had been on its face a few moments ago had dissolved into one of pure anger. That wasn't what frightened the man, however—the wound at the chest was no longer bleeding and appeared to have closed up. The only sign that there had once even _been_ a wound there were the rivers of blood still trickling down the front of the shirt and staining it a deep ebony.

Shaking his head, the worker slowly drew backward, stammering almost unintelligibly: "N-no—no—that can't be—that's imposs—that's im-impossib—"

He gave a cry of surprise as he tripped over the leg of one of the tables and fell onto his back, hitting the linoleum with a sickening _CRACCK_ sound. He made a frightened noise, then quickly felt over his aching body…no, nothing was broken, thank God, but it was going to be much worse if he didn't do something soon. The creature had sensed this moment of weakness and was now drawing closer, arms outstretched, ready to leap on him at a moment's notice.

The worker shuddered intensely, his face paling, as he covered his face with one hand, hoping that the creature wouldn't kill him and just back away. He didn't think that this was actually possible; this thing was apparently set on revenge…it was restless. Why would it just walk past him and be on its way?

He screamed in horror as the creature's hand cut through his blue jeans, scraping the skin and leaving a rather long cut in the leg. The worker quickly flipped over onto his frontside and tried to struggle away, but the creature had leapt and, within a split second, had pinned him down to the floor, coming dangerously close to grinding his face down into the linoleum. The worker shuddered again, then scraped the ground with his nails, trying to get away, but it was hopeless…

He heard a _CLANK_ sound as the knife was removed from the floor, then looked up in time to see the creature raise the blade up at arm's length. The worker screamed again, but the moment he did so the creature's hand shot out, hitting the back of his head and sending his face to the floor again. He could feel blood trickle from his now broken nose as it became harder to breathe.

_Is he going to suffocate me like this_? The worker thought to himself, _or is he going to stab me to death? Will he cut me to ribbons and then shove me into the body bag in his place? Oh God, please, no…_

Moments passed to no avail, the creature seemed to be playing with its prey before it delivered the final blow, or maybe it was just considering. The worker tried to struggle, but it was clear that the monster had a tight grip on him…then, just as he was about to scream for help again, the creature lowered its ugly head directly to the side of his face, and whispered, in a voice that sounded like it hadn't been used for days:

"_You're not who I want_."

The worker swallowed, not sure whether to be relieved or more horrified than he already was. The creature then lowered the knife, wriggled it underneath his neck, and sliced the string binding the tooth necklace in half. With a heavy jerk, he then removed it from the man's neck and slowly released his grip on him.

The man didn't watch him leave, however; he'd already passed out cold on the floor from the aftershock.


	4. Part Four

****

FROM THE GRAVE

By Grand High Idol

PART IV

"No way," Jackie gasped, both of her hands to her face, her nails coming close to digging into her skin as she looked at Digit.

"Way," Digit replied; he then held up the front page of the paper he had been reading earlier that morning. "They've found where we've hidden Delete and have already performed the autopsy. So far they think it's either a high-suspect murder or an attempted suicide, though, and for that we're lucky. The most they managed to figure out is that he died from the impact." He sighed, then dropped the paper down on the table. "But if this keeps up, I don't know how long it'll last. Buzz called me last night—"

"He still angry with us?" Matt asked, taking his seat at the table across from Digit and propping his head in his hands.

"He's _furious_." Digit shook his head. "He called me up last night and demanded to know why _I_ called _him_—apparently someone had been playing a telephone prank and he thought that I was the one who did it."

"Why?" Inez wanted to know. "Besides the fact that he's mad at you, that is."

"Well…" Digit sucked in a breath and looked up toward the ceiling. "I remember him saying that he received a call on a collect call line not too long before he called me…urm…well, he said that he _knew_ it was _me_ because the other person on the line claimed to have been Delete, and he told me that the person—whoever it was—had done a dead-on impression of Delete's voice."

"Whoa, creepy," Matt exclaimed, removing his head from his hands and placing them down atop the table. "What did the person say? Did Buzz tell you what he, or it, or whatever, said to him?"

Digit looked down at the table. "Hmm…well, when I was trying to back myself up, he still wouldn't buy it, naturally, so he kind of gave me a hint as to what the person said…and I quote…" His voice then turned rather rough as he mockingly imitated Buzz, "He's dead, you idiotic turkey! He can't call me up on a collect call line and claim 'dat he's back from 'da grave!"

At hearing this, all three kids—mostly Jackie—all stopped what they had been doing before and turned to look at him, their eyes wide. Finally, Inez said, adjusting her glasses nervously, "Back from the grave?"

"Yep." Digit nodded solemnly. "That kind of creeped me out…I thought that he was just joking, you know? He used to do things like that to me all the time while I was still working for Hacker, but…" He sighed. "You saw him back when he first found that Delete was dead…he nearly ripped us apart, and I was pretty sure that his head would've exploded if he hadn't of tried to bloody you, Jackie."

"Ugh, yeah," Jackie replied, shuddering.

"Well…usually when he gets _this_ angry he does something very destructive…and I'm not just talking about 'trash something' destructive, I mean 'mass' destructive. There was one time when he—" He stopped when he noticed the nervous looks of the three children, then sighed, looked off to one side, and finally finished, "I just don't think he'd do just a simple prank call when he gets _this_ angry, is all."

"So, what are you getting at?" Inez questioned.

"What I mean to say is, Buzz probably didn't phone me just to pull a prank on me," Digit told her. "If that were the case I'd be greatly surprised—not that I'm not, already. If Buzz had still been as angry as he was back at the street…"

"Okay, so you're trying to tell us that you don't think Buzz was joking when he called you," Matt told him, sounding rather impatient. "But what's going on here? What's that got to do with anything?"

"I think it has to do with a lot of things, Matty," Digit replied, sounding rather nervous. He toyed around with his fingers—or feathers—for awhile, obviously uncomfortable with the whole situation. "Buzz clearly stated that Delete—"

"Please don't say that," Jackie groaned, clasping her hands together. Digit sighed.

"Okay, okay," he said. "Anyway, Buzz clearly stated that someone who had _claimed_ to be Delete—better?" Jackie nodded, allowing him to continue. "…Had called him on a collect call line, saying that he was back from the grave. That's all I knew from our conversation last night…" He paused, then finally remembered something else to add to his explanation. "Oh yeah, and, as I said before, Buzz also said that the voice imitation was a dead-on impression of Delete—no faltering, no slippage, nothing. Since I'm the one who can do voice impressions, of _course_ I was a suspect." He sighed in disgust, then picked up a pencil that had been lying on the table and began to toy around with it, probably out of nervousness more than boredom.

"But if you didn't do it, then who did?" Matt asked him. "No one knows that we killed Delete except you, me, Inez, Jackie, Buzz…and then there was Delete himself, of course, but he doesn't really count since he's dead…"

"Or is he?" Digit muttered quietly.

Matt looked up. "You say something, Didge?"

Digit looked back at him, then quickly shook his head. "No, no, nothing important. I just hopped on my train of thought a little too early, is all…but it was only a theory."

"Oh man, this is worse than I thought," Jackie groaned, pacing around the room, her hands clasped on both sides of her head fearfully. "What's going on here? Did someone else watch us murder Delete and purposely try to scare us?"

"I don't know, Jackie," Digit replied, slowly shaking his head. "I don't know."

***

Buzz had been restless last night as well. Although he did go off to his bedroom a while after Hacker had left for his own, his sleep was fitful and uncomfortable. He continued to fall asleep, remain asleep for a few hours, then suddenly jolt awake, dripping in cold sweat, before falling back asleep again. Needless to say, he didn't like this at all, but there really wasn't anything that he could do about it. Inner anxiety seemed to creep up on him quite often, and he was blissfully unaware of it…somewhat.

He finally jolted awake one last time, now drenched in cold sweat, gripping the ends of the blanket tightly in his shaking hands. Breathing hard a few times, he allowed the drowsiness to clear, then wiped the sweat off of his brow and looked over at the digital clock he kept next to his side of the bed.

However, his vision was still slightly blurry from his grogginess, thus he couldn't accurately read the sky blue digits currently next to him. Emitting a sigh of frustration, he grabbed the clock up from the beside table and held it about six inches from his face, as so to read the time correctly:

_7: 41 a.m_., was what it read. Buzz continued to stare at it for awhile, then finally shook his head and set the clock back on the table before quickly jumping off of the bed, nearly getting tangled in the bed-sheets in the process.

"Shoot!" he exclaimed in frustration, as he tried to get himself in proper order. "I was supposed 'ta be up at seven! I overslept! Gah, 'da boss is gonna maul me for 'dis…" He sighed as he finally finished the job, then ran out the currently open doorway, almost banging ignorantly against one of the walls in the process. "Geez, everything's goin' wrong now. Foist Delete dies, and—and—" His voice faltered; he quickly swallowed and shook his head. "I—I should just get to 'da control room while I still have 'da time on my hands…"

Absentmindedly rubbing the side of his head, he bolted down the hallway, took a sharp turn to the left, and finally came out in the main control room. Panting, clutching his chest with one hand, head lowered to the floor, he slowly waited until his heart rate returned to normal, then shook his head and looked up toward the table in the control room.

_I'm really out of shape_, he thought to himself, almost despairingly, as he began to head over toward the table. _I should be able to run a short distance without feeling like I'm about to burst something…ugh…I hate exercise_…

He was about to get up on the chair when something came to mind. Taking a quick glance around the room, he could see that, although Hacker had told him to get up almost 45 minutes earlier than he had intended, the green man himself was nowhere to be seen. The lights were on—he saw that when he came into the control room—but, no one was there—literally.

_Weird_, the stocky robot thought to himself, glancing around almost suspiciously. _The boss told me to get up at seven…but he's not here. It's so unlike him to fall back on his original schedule…_

He then looked up at the lights, which were still on and still illuminating the room, the way that they always did during the time the Grim Wreaker was running…

He stopped when he thought of that.

The Grim Wreaker _was_ running.

And yet, Hacker had somehow disappeared from the main control room—even though he had clearly stated that he'd be there until ten a.m. the next morning—at least, that was what he had declared last night before Buzz went to sleep. He said that he was going to make some updates to the manual system, whatever that was, and he told Buzz to get up at seven so that he could take care of the other duties while Hacker was at work. (Now that Delete was gone, Buzz was stuck doing everything, which he wasn't very happy with…he wasn't happy with Delete dying in the first place, either.)

Buzz nervously glanced around the room. _What if something's wrong?_ He thought to himself, one of his hands in his mouth. He then shook it off. _No, Buzz, get logical, here. The boss probably went off down one of the other hallways…maybe to get something from the supply closet or whatever. I'm sure he'll be back shortly…just wait…just wait._

That being thought, he then climbed up onto his chair, crossed one leg over the other, and waited, staring down at the floor, counting how many blue tiles and how many white tiles there were out of sheer boredom. After about a half-hour of waiting, Buzz finally sighed and got off the chair; Hacker still hadn't arrived yet.

"It's so weird," Buzz muttered to himself as he walked up toward one of the monitors. "So weird…"

He then, with some effort, hoisted himself up onto the control panel and began to punch in a few numbers—if he didn't know where Hacker was, the security cameras would. He had seen Hacker do it many times before and had thus memorized the code, so it wasn't too hard for him to enter the correct passwords.

He was just about to enter the last one when an absolutely putrid aroma reached his sinuses, and he stopped dead, coughed, gagged, then finally shut his mouth and held his breath. It was disgusting…the stench of burning steel was probably the most putrid smell of all to a robot's nasal screen. Finally, after holding his breath for some time, he finally exhaled, panted for a few moments, then looked around.

__

Ugh…revolting…he thought to himself, sticking out his tongue to represent his disgust. _What's going on here? Was the engine overheated or something? That happened before…but no, wait, it didn't smell like this…this smells like something from in here. But what? What…?_

He looked around the area, confused, until his glance finally settled upon Hacker's Recharger Chair—something that he hadn't looked at since he entered the room. Being that it was next to the largest monitor, positioned in the center of the wall, he could see the Chair perfectly from the side…but he really wished, after finally catching a glimpse of what lay in it, that he hadn't.

Sure enough, Hacker was in the Chair…only he didn't look energized at all—in fact, he looked much worse than that. He had slumped down into the seat, his entire lower body nearly against the floor, and his hands—one resting on the arm of the Chair, the other in midair—were curled up into half-fists—the fingers looking as if he had been writhing in pain. That was all Buzz could see of him, however; his face was currently out of view thanks to the sides, and the condition of his upper body was unclear to him.

Swallowing hard, Buzz turned toward the Chair, then slowly took a step forward. "Boss?" he finally managed to say, although his voice was a weak, high-pitched squeak—something he had never heard himself use before.

Hacker made no reply. Buzz felt his hands shaking, but he refused to give in to his fear and instead took another step forward. "Boss?" he repeated. Still no answer.

Cold sweat was now beginning to drip down both sides of his head, and his hands were now shaking so violently that he could barely keep himself straight. He could feel his knees shaking, too, and, much as he didn't want to, he finally forced himself to run up to the Chair, and slowly walk over toward the front.

"Boss?" Buzz repeated again, then slowly and steadily reached out his hand, and tapped at one of his boss's own frozen-in-writhing hands…

As the remainder of Hacker's body slid down off the Chair and hit the floor with a rather painful noise. Buzz, startled, jumped backward, then slowly looked down at Hacker…and then brought both hands to the sides of his head and began shaking it frantically, trying to get himself out of it.

"No, no, no," he kept repeating, trying to stop his head from throbbing, the floor from spinning. "No. _NO_!"

Yes, it was Hacker's body…he knew it couldn't possibly be anyone else, given the circumstances. However, it was in bad shape…parts of him were blackened to nearly ash, his chest appeared to have been torn at, his wig was half-off, and his face…dear Lord, his face…Buzz couldn't stand the sight of it. It looked so terrified…so horribly terrified…the mouth was open in a silent scream, and the eyes were wide with terror…

Those eyes…those horribly lifeless, glassy eyes…

His own eyes beginning to tear up from the pain in his head, and the fear of the entire thing, Buzz whipped away from the body and began to brush at his eyes, trying to get himself to stop crying. It was ridiculous…but then again, he wasn't used to it. He'd never seen a dead body before…

He'd never seen a dead body…

A dead body…

This finally hitting him, he began trembling again…but no, he reasoned with himself. Just because the body was lying still, didn't mean that Hacker was dead for sure. But he couldn't know…unless he checked…but it was so horribly vile…he couldn't stand the sight of it…he couldn't stand to look at it…he could already feel his innards knotting up…

__

You have to, he finally told himself firmly. Although he was still horribly shaking and his heart was racing like mad, he forced himself to turn back toward the body and reach out toward the throat, touch his fingers to the side of Hacker's scorched temples…feel for a pulse…any pulse at all would do. Just so long as there was a pulse…please, he pleaded, let there be a pulse…

No such luck. Buzz whimpered with dread, then, desperate, moved to one of his boss's hands and felt for a pulse there.

None. Dead.

"_Nooooo_!" Buzz wailed, dropping the stiff appendage and bringing both of his hands to his head again. Head spinning, he dropped to his knees, his fingers digging into his skull, an unbearable pain shooting through his memory. _This isn't happening_, he thought to himself over the echo of his terrified heartbeat. _This isn't happening. This can't be happening_.

He clenched his jaw, then closed his eyes tightly, provoking more pain to the head, but he didn't care. He didn't care about the pain. All he was thinking was that Hacker was dead. His boss was dead. And it wasn't out of natural cause—why would something natural cause him to look like _that_?

__

He was murdered, Buzz thought to himself, as he opened his eyes again, staring at his boss's lifeless corpse. _He was murdered._ _But how? It wasn't recent, or else I would've heard it. And I didn't hear anything during my sleeping fits_—

It was then, over his rush of terror, that he finally recalled what exactly the Recharger Chair ran on. His innards constricting on him again, he looked up past the corpse and at the Chair itself, which still stood, so calmly, so innocently. So still…

The Chair ran on electrical energy when it was in use—it somehow helped in increasing Hacker's power levels; he _was_ a cyborg, after all. Buzz had known the correct energy level for the electricity to flow—he and Delete had partially been created for that purpose. Of course, that meant Delete had known it too…

Delete…

Buzz stopped abruptly. Looking back up at the Chair, he narrowed his eyes in determination, and, for the moment forgetting all about the corpse, he slowly walked around it, to the side of the Chair—where the smaller control panel was stationed. If he could correctly recall, the electrical flow should've been set at .64 volts—that was the most a common cyborg could take before the surge became dangerous. Of course, Buzz had thought many times about turning the power up just a smidge, give Hacker a taste of his own medicine…but he had never mustered the guts, nor the moment, to do so.

And whilst he thought it, someone else actually did it. Someone else had killed Hacker.

Someone else…

Buzz realized that he was zoning out again, and quickly gave himself a slap to the face to come to his senses. Taking a shuddery breath, he slowly looked up toward the panel again, then grabbed one arm of the Chair with both hands and quickly pulled himself up—just as a powerful electrical surge shot through his body, temporarily numbing him.

"Nngh!" he muttered painfully, clenching his teeth. But the shock quickly passed, and within a few moments Buzz was able to move himself, although he still felt slightly lightheaded. The stocky robot considered this, as well…whoever had murdered Hacker had done it recently; a bit of the flow was still present, even though the Chair had supposedly been off for quite a while. Either that or it had blown out…

He stopped. It was time to stop thinking and start looking…he did so by checking the monitor for the electrical flow settings near the Chair. It should've been set at .64, and he knew this…and, upon checking it, he could see that it was nowhere near .64 at all.

The surge level was set to 5.78.

Buzz couldn't help but gasp. Estimating, the flow was about eight or nine times the power of the original setting. No one could've possibly survived a surge like this. No one.

"God…" he moaned, not recognizing his own voice. Feeling greatly dizzy, he jumped off the Chair and landed on the floor…he panted harshly a few times, dripping in cold sweat, head throbbing, innards hurting, body shaking…he swallowed, trying to force back the bile that was threatening to collect in his throat, then looked over toward Hacker's corpse again…and noticed something on the floor.

"Huh?" he muttered, for the moment not caring about how horribly sickened he felt. Managing to awkwardly stagger over to the object, he reached out a pale, shaking hand and gently removed it from the floor.

It was a piece of paper…no…wait a minute…this wasn't paper…

Buzz glanced back toward the corpse, and proved his theory: it was, indeed, not paper, but a piece of Hacker's shirt instead. Which made it all the more barbaric, Buzz was thinking, despaired. Shaking his head and forcing down the bile again, he looked over the cloth, wondering what this was about...and was that blood on the other side of the cloth…?

No. It was ink. Red ink.

Curious, Buzz turned the cloth over, then stretched it out so that he could make out what was on it. He nearly choked afterward. Scrawled on the cloth, in bleeding, hastily-written letters, were three simple words:

****

I'm serious, Buzzy.

"Oh…" Buzz moaned, bringing one hand to the side of his head. He tossed the cloth to one side, his nausea returning, and the bile was threatening to force itself up as well…he didn't try to fight back the sickness, however. "Oh…oh God…no…no…"

The bad taste had made its way to the top of his throat. Unable to stand it any longer, he groaned, dropped to his knees, clutched his throat…and retched.


End file.
